Blockades or Breakthroughs?

Aboriginal Peoples Confront the Canadian State

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Can blockades and occupations be catalysts for positive change in Canada's Aboriginal communities?

Blockades have become a common response to Canada's failure to address and resolve the legitimate claims of First Nations. Blockades or Breakthroughs? debates the importance and effectiveness of blockades and occupations as political and diplomatic tools for Aboriginal people.

The adoption of direct action tactics like blockades and occupations is predicated on the idea that something drastic is needed for Aboriginal groups to break an unfavourable status quo, overcome structural barriers, and achieve their goals. But are blockades actually "breakthroughs"? What are the objectives of Aboriginal people and communities who adopt this approach? How can the success of these methods be measured? This collection offers an in-depth survey of occupations, blockades, and their legacies, from 1968 to the present. Individual case studies situate specific blockades and conflicts in historical context, examine each group’s reasons for occupation, and analyze the media labels and frames applied to both Aboriginal and state responses.

Direct action tactics remain a powerful political tool for First Nations in Canada. The authors of Blockades or Breakthroughs? Argue that blockades and occupations are instrumental, symbolic, and complex events that demand equally multifaceted responses.

“An important text. For the first time, comprehensive historical analysis of major First Nations, Métis and Inuit-led direct-action resistance in Canada has been collected in one volume. A highly valuable resource to students and scholars of Indigenous/non-Indigenous relations, as well as those interested in processes of nation-building. Weighted heavily towards historical analysis, the case studies [are] ripe for further analysis by scholars of gender, Indigenous studies, Canadian studies, and sociology.” British Journal of Canadian Studies“Blockades or Breakthroughs? is a valuable resource for understanding the conditions and concerns that inform aboriginal uses of direct actionagainst a government that has historically sought to diminish First Nations' ability to assert sovereignty, and what the failures and successes of direct action have meant to Canada's First Nations.” Pacific Northwest Quarterly“This collection successfully establishes the multi-vocal and politically formidable nature of blockades and occupations, in the process adding much-needed depth to histories of Aboriginal direct action and stimulating meaningful conversation. By complicating and contextualizing blockades and occupations on both theoretical and practical levels, this volume explores the transformative potential of direct action. This innovative collection will appeal to a wide readership including those interested in Aboriginal issues in British Columbia. [With an] important examination of environmental politics and excellent reconsideration of the well-known Gustafsen Lake standoff [Blockades or Breakthroughs?] adds much to our understanding of the role played in direct action outcomes by media, state authorities, and internal Aboriginal political factionalism.” BC Studies

Yale D. Belanger is professor of political science at the University of Lethbridge and a member of the Royal Society of Canada, College of New Scholars, Artists, and Scientists.P. Whitney Lackenbauer is Canada Research Chair in the Study of the Canadian North at Trent University and co-director of the Centre on Foreign Policy and Federalism at St Jerome’s University in the University of Waterloo.

1 Point Pelee’s Summer of Discontent 51John Sandlos2 The Nature of a Blockade: Environmental Politics and the Haida Action on Lyell Island, British Columbia 70David a. Rossiter3 Lubicon Lake: The Success and Failure of Radical Activism 90Tom Flanagan4 “The War Will Be Won When the Last Low-Level Flying Happens Here in Our Home”: Innu Opposition to Low-Level Flying in Labrador 119P. Whitney Lackenbauer5 A Bridge Too Far? The Oka Crisis 166P. Whitney Lackenbauer6 The Oldman River Dam and the Lonefighters’ Response to Environmental Incursion 222Yale D. Belanger7 The Tragedy of Ipperwash 253P. Whitney Lackenbauer with Victor Gulewitsch8 The Gustafsen Lake Standoff 314Nick Shrubsole and P. Whitney Lackenbauer9 Seeking Relief: The Dispute in Burnt Church (Esgenoôpetitj) 356Sarah J. King10 Blockades, Occupations, and the Bay of Quinte Mohawks’ Fight for Sovereignty 383Yale D. Belanger11 Your Home on Native Land? Conflict and Controversy at Caledonia and the Six Nations of the Grand River 411Timothy C. Winegard